We’ve created these things called civilization, technology, and the law to reduce the amount of risky suckiness, the human race has to suffer under. It’s unfortunate that some people only think protection should apply to them.
Civilization includes dealing with the results of your actions, not just forcing others to cope.
Heart conditions of various degrees of severity are often coupled with Down’s Syndrome. I’d tend to believe that part.
I wonder, if the child had not had Down’s, and just the heart trouble, would the parent’s have taken him home?
What is the law in Australia on providing medical care for a child? Would the parents be required to allow the defect to be surgically repaired? In the US, children born with DS and numerous other defects sometimes are allowed to die of the other defects (one defect they sometimes have is an esophagus that is not attached to their stomach, and they would have to have a tube surgically installed for feeding until they are old enough for surgery to connect the esophagus; not treating this usually means the child dies in about a week).
I wonder if by leaving the child behind, the parents were counting on him dying soon of the heart defect because the surrogate couldn’t afford to repair it. Or maybe they thought it couldn’t be done as well in Thailand as in Australia (this I doubt, though, considering that Bangkok is one of the leading centers of gender reassignment surgeries, but who knows what the parents know?) But it might really be true that having the child travel by air wasn’t an option. He might need supplemental oxygen, and most airlines won’t let people board with oxygen tanks; others do, but they make you jump through a dozen hoops, and others allow only oxygen concentrators, but not tanks.
Today’s news: their dog has been taken by the RSPCA because it has been left at the house for the last two or three days without food since the Farnells fled the press.
And the father has 22 child sex convictions, including some for molesting girls aged 7 and 10 when he was in his mid 20s.
Updates:
Gammy has a fit heart, doctors say: Parents hit back at his surrogate mum
Gammy clinic may have broken rules
And the couple’s names: David and Wendy Farrell, but an earlier post in this thread lists their surname as Farnell.
Australian media still predominantly reporting the surname as Farnell:
The plot gets weirder with a fresh surrogacy scandal here:
Nine babies found in Bangkok ‘surrogate condo’: Japanese man claims to be biological father
I also seem to recall a year or so ago a scandal broke involving Vietnamese women being brought to Thailand to act as surrogate mothers. I’d say the authorities are now about to crack down on the practice.
I can’t keep up with all the changes in “he said, she said, they did”. The story changes several times a day.
The biofather’s adult son says his father has made mistakes, but has made up for them, and that it took his dad ten years to get his life back in track so to have this come up now is “heartbreaking”.
Interesting way to describe his father’s history of “inappropriately touching and forcing to perform sex acts on him” girls as young as 7 over a two year period, and again 15 years later. Forgive me if I save my sympathy for someone who deserves it.
Okay, NOW they are officially the worst people ever!
The broker for the surrogacy agency has come out swinging against the surrogate: Report: Surrogate lied, recruited others: Broker claims Pattaramon paid in full, recruited others
How soon before the Lifetime network movie?
The Japanese man responsible for this above has fled the country. You can see his passport photo in the linked story. 24 years old and entered 65 times in the past two years. (Entered … Thailand … that is, heh.)
I’m not sticking up for the surrogate but I don’t think I’d believe a word the agency says. They have, after all, a business to protect and future parents to entice.
Movie next month. 
Tomorrow night (Sunday) the Farnells are being interviewed on the Aussie 60 Minutes program. Hardly cutting-edge journalism at the best of times (although when the program first started in the 1970’s it had some exceptional investigative journos and editors) I expect just more tabloid dreck.
Of course, it’ll kill the ratings!
Oh, please, somebody post it to youtube! Then I can post it under “worst TV I’ve ever watched.”
Try this link:
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/videoindex.aspx
I watched the first part of it last night. That was certainly… something. I felt like I needed a shower afterwards.